Thursday, December 3, 2009

Online Writers Now Have Greater Shot Of Winning Pulitzer

Good news to all those Woodward and Bernstein bloggers: the Pulitzer Prize committee has now opened up the requirements for winning an award in journalism to make online reporters eligible for the prestigious honor.

Now "entries for journalism awards must be based on material coming from a text-based United States newspaper or news site that publishes at least weekly during the calendar year," according to the revised Pulitzer rules. This change is a baby step from last year's eligibility requirements, which read that nominees from online organizations could be considered, but they, like their print counterparts, had to be "primarily dedicated to original news reporting and coverage of ongoing events."

Considering the varied and sometimes esoteric nature of online publications, the rules for this year consider the writer and their piece over the publication they work for, according to Sig Gissler of the Pulitzer Prize Committee. This is definitely a boon to all those investigative bloggers out there who don't yet write for pubs like The Huffington Post.